National Debt Essay

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The National Debt The economic collapse resulted in a surge of unemployment rates which affected income tax revenue thus restricting the government spending. Therefore, the government was obliged to increase its debt ceiling, although opposed by the republican congress members, by borrowing more money to cover the deficit caused by the economy downturn surpassing the $16.7 trillion mark. (Philips, 2013) According to Peter G. Peterson Foundation, whenever the national debt goes up the interest rates go up. Several economists claim that an increase in the national debt ceiling means that the administration borrowing capacity will increase which will put a pressure on the private sector, therefore driving the interest rates to go up compelling …show more content…

This snowball effect the national debt has may weaken the country’s ability to recover quickly and would drive the economy to a recession causing people to cut their spending and limiting their investments, because they lost faith in their government. (Furth, 2013) In order to reduce the national debt, the government may elect to increase tax rates to make up the lost revenue or implement drastic budget cuts. However, both strategies have serious repercussions. Increasing taxes will definitely drive the economy down and drive the unemployment rate up, because several businesses will be forced to close as they are taxed at a higher rate, losing tax advantages and incentives limiting their ability to keep their employees, maintaining the production and covering their expenses. With that said, the major transfer payments the Federal government makes (Social Security, veteran benefits, Medicare…), that involves payment schedule reduction, will definitely be affected in the event the government chose to adopt a budget cut strategy minimizing the recipients’ ability to spend more mainly because they are not making enough. (The Heritage Foundation, 2015) ultimately reducing inflationary pressures (Andolfatto,

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